Balanced Sand (First RMT)

Hello Smogon! I've been a member for a good bit on this site, but just recently started actually battling. My favorite tier is definitely OU (just like almost everybody else lol) and I also like sand, so that's where this team came from. ​

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Team Building ProcessLike I said, I wanted to base this team around sand, and Tyranitar is strictly a beast compared to the hippo if you can overlook all of his weaknesses.Since I wanted this team to be fairly balanced, I wanted to find good special and physical attackers. I chose these two because of their stellar offenses and immunity to sandstorm damage.Going back to the balanced thing, I wanted to find a good special wall and a good defensive wall. Skarmory is the epitome of physical defense, and if played right, Gastrodon is a great special wall that is awesome against rain teams.As you can probably see, this team was extremely lacking in speed. I chose scarfed Mamoswine to patch up this weakness.I played with the team for awhile for a little bit of success, but improvements needed to be made. Lucario just wasn't cutting it with this team, so I replaced him with Chomp because he's just a beast. I was also having trouble with steel types, and Reuniclus wasn't doing well, so I replaced him with magnezone.The "improved" team produced a lot more wins, but I could still see it hadn't reached its full potential. Magnezone couldn't take on faster Scizor, so I scarfed him beacause the thing would decimate my team. Mamoswine being choice locked into moves was a pain as well, so I decided Sandslash would be better for even more speed, not being locked into moves, and his ability to spin away hazards that were a problem for my team.​

Tyranitar has been the cornerstone of this team ever since its inception, and for good reason. He has titanic special defense in the sand and I put a few extra EVs into defense to allow him to tank some of the plentiful physical hits across the metagame, specifically the omnipresent earthquake. Stealth rock is for hazard damage and I usually lead with it, but I may thunder wave the opponent if the situation calls for it. Fire Blast is for somewhat of a surprise factor on ferro and forre and scizor coming in, and pursuit is for those fleeing psychic and ghost foes. ​

I am SO GLAD this guy came back down to OU. This set absolutely wreaks havoc if given the chance to set up, although admittedly it can be hard to sometimes. The leftovers are for recovery with substitute, and the EVs are fairly standard for just about any Chomp. I bring him in on something he can set up on and either SD or substitute, depending on what I see fit. Then I proceed to spam with outrage if Magnezone has taken out opposing steels or predict accordingly if he hasn't.
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Fire
- Flash Cannon​

An essential member of the team, Magnezone is vital to taking out the steel types that hinder Garchomp's sweeping prowess. He is also valuable against rain teams with fast threats like starmie and unscarfed keldeo. The EVs are once again standard on a Scarf Magnezone, and timid is for all the speed he can get. Volt Switch is the crux of this set, and is what I use 75% of the time. Thunderbolt is if I need more power and hidden power fire of course is to kill steel types, specifically ferrothorn, forretress, and scizor. Flash Cannon is really just a filler, I wish I knew something better that could go there. ​

Skarmory hasn't changed one bit since I made this team. She is nearly impossible to take down from the physical side, which is great because it gives her multiple oppurtunities to spike the opponent. The EVs and impish nature give her maximum physical bulk and the speed EVs let her outpace other noninvested base 70s. Her only real job is to get the coveted three-layer spikes down, and check certain threats like Conkeldurr, who is a real problem for my team, and others like Breloom and Garchomp. Once she gets spikes down, I proceed to phaze the opponent with whirlwind until she is finally brought down, unless there is still someone she will need to check later.
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature: (+ SpD, - Atk)
- Toxic
- Recover
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam​

Another original and unchanged member of the team, Gastrodon's main niche in the current metagame is to check rain teams. She does this extremely well with this team, handling plenty of threats like Starmie, SpecsToed, Torn-T to an extent, and even threats out of rain like the Lati twins. The EVs give her maximum special bulk, which is a lot of special bulk, and a little boost in special attack for when I predict correctly and get that storm drain boost. Toxic is to wear down enemies, while recover heals off tons of damage. Earth Power is a powerful stab with the special attack boost, and ice beam kills dragons. Gastrodon is certainly an important part of this team, but if someone needed to be replaced, she would be the first one to leave.
Sandslash @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+ Spe, - Atk)
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin​

Sandslash is almost never seen in the current metagame, but he is invaluable to this team and could probably function well on just about any sand team. My previous teams were extremely vulnerable to hazards, and Sandslash took on the roll of spinner and ran away with it. When any opposing weather inducer is removed, and sand is permanent, this guy is hard to stop. Especially if he gets a Swords Dance. This EV spread gives him over 500 speed in the sand, and makes him an awesome revenge killer or deadly sweeper with the SD boost. And once again, I can't overstate how important Rapid Spin is. This guy really was the final piece to the team, I believe. ​

So that's it! This is my first RMT, and like I said I haven't been battling competitively very long, so please, suggestions are more than welcome!​

I actually don't have many suggestions for the team as it looks pretty solid. A couple set notes:
If you're finding hard to set up with chomp, maybe try an EV spread of 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe, as this will make his subs much bulkier and thus able to stand up to weaker attacks. It does sacrifice power though, so your choice.
I'd suggest using ChoiceSpecs on Magnezone in order to KO stuff like ferrothorn (especially in rain). If you do so, tbolt is really unnecessary since it's barely stronger than volt switch, and that slot can be used for Sleep Talk. This allows it to function as a sleep absorber if necessary and of its remaining three moves hp fire and flash cannon OHKO and volt switch allows you to change, so it serves as a decent check to breloom as well, especially given that most will attempt to set up on you once you're asleep.
I would definitely reconsider the sandslash slot. If you're liking it, fine, but I've always felt that it was too easily killed by special attacks and just not strong enough to sweep at all. if you do choose to keep it, I'd go with Life Orb > leftovers since slash needs all the power it can get.

Some big problems I notice:
You're very weak to fighting types. Something like bandkion can come in vs. gastro, magnezone, chomp, or ttar and be guaranteed a KO every time. A couple ways to fix this:
Having something like tentacruel > sandslash would help. A defensive set can shrug off even CB close combats, and it can RS as slash does. It also helps a lot vs rain since it regains health then. A good set would be:

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Another option is something like gengar. While gar cannot rapid spin, it is fully immune to fighting-type attacks and can also serve as a spinblocker, which is helpful given the amount of hazards on your team. You could even use a scarf set if desired to maintain the high speed (and scarfgar is actually faster than slash in sand). Otherwise, a subdisable set or subsplit set could both work well.
Other than that, this team looks pretty solid. I hope my comments helped and GL with the team!

Your team is weak to rain spam, especially in Tornadus-T, I'll try to give you some small modifications without upsetting too your team first. To address this weakness, for example, you could give Chopple Berry Tyranitar instead of Leftovers, as well as he will attack you with Superpower you use Purusuit.
Or even more easy enough to change the spread of your Evs in this Skarmory: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SDef Skarmory Sdef in this way is able to make all the moves of both Hurricane Tornadus-T, and U-Turn Superpower, in short, good physical defense and good special defense.
Seeing that Garchomp, try to consider using it with Salac Berry, which increases the speed and Dragon Claw> Outrage, not to be out of a move after attacks.
For Gastrodon, I would put nature Sassy> Calm and add Earthquake> Earth Power, for reasons of counter Sub Jirachi Calm Minder that could cause problems.
To suggest Sanslash Life Orb instead of Leftovers, for the simple fact of increasing even more damage when they attack.
For Magnezone suggest you try to see how running with Choice Specs, which significantly increases the damage compared to Choice Scarf, but it's a little thing, in case you serves the Scarf leave him like this!
Good Luck, with your team!

So if you're running Scarf Magnezone, you're actually better off running Choice Scarf Magneton. The Magnezone family is on of the few in the realm of Pokemon that actually loses speed when it evolves from Magneton to Magnezone. Your use of Magnezone as a Scarfer shows that speed is valued in the situation, and Magneton has a higher base speed. It has base 70 Speed instead of 60, which means it can outspeed Starmie and +1 Dragonite and +1 Gyarados.

I agree with Mr. Green's rate; the specially defensive spread he suggests for Skarmory helps take some pressure off of Gastrodon to wall Tornadus-T, who we all know is a top threat. It also helps it sponge special dragon-type attacks coming from the likes of Latios and Latias. While you do have Tyranitar for these threats a smart player can beat you 1 v 1 as you lack Crunch or any Atk EVs. Because of this the Lati@s player can stay in on Tyranitar and take the weak Pursuits, potentially setting up or KOing Tyranitar.

Gastrodon also desperately wants a Sassy Nature with Earthquake over Earth Power solely for CM Jirachi. SubCM Jirachi in particular is gaining a lot of use in this metagame thanks to its astounding power in the Rain, the most common weather condition.

A final suggestion you could consider is trying Shed Shell on Tyranitar. Dugtrio is so often found on opposing Weather teams and Tyranitar really is just a sitting duck waiting to be trapped. You do lose out on the only recovery Tyranitar has though, which would turn Lati@s into even bigger threats. But with Skarmory's new EV spread I believe this is worth it. Sandslash needs the Sand up to be effective and if you lose Tyranitar you're pretty much also losing Sandslash.

Good Luck!

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Hey, cool team, but it looks like it has a really hard team against Rain, even with Gastrodon, as many rain teams carry either Tornadus-T, HP Grass on Poli [usually Specs which has a field day if this team lacks Gastro], Toxic, or a combination of these. Additionally,NP Celebi and Terrakion are both big problems for this team, Celebi sets up ono Gastrodon/Magnezone/Skarm and can hurt the whole team with +2 HP Fires or Giga Drains while Terrakion can just spam Close Combat. I'm gonna say to try a CM Latias over Skarmory and Forretress over Sandslash. Latias is a pretty good means of absolving most of this team's weaknesses. Latias beats Specstoed 1 on 1 and doesn't fear any of its attacks except Ice Beam, but it makes it a lot easier to predict around. In addition to this, Latias nets you a key fighting resist, while Forretress also provides a much better means of beating Terrakion, in addition to this Latias can outspeed and possibly KO Terrakion. In addition to this, Latias is probably one of if not the best NP Celebi counters in existence, as well as a pretty great Keldeo counter [more reliable than Gastrodon] helping out the team even more against Pokemon that would otherwise threaten it. It's also a great partner with Forretress and can use Roar to make use of its Spikes on things like a predicted Scizor switch, and a lot of the Pokemon that counter CM Latias happen to be setup bait for the land shark, which is pretty great :). Forretress will obviously be filling Skarmory's void as a Spiker and defensive wall, and also has great combo with Volt Switch and TTar's pursuit and can function as a much better counter to Terrakion and also stops dragons like Skarm.

This is a very solid Sandstorm team and the surprise value of Sandslash can really give your opponents trouble. Looking at your team, a major threat to it is Chlorophyll Venusaur, the most commonly used sweeper on Sun teams. Under sunlight, Chlorophyll Venusaur outspeeds your entire team and can pull off a sweep with its standard coverage of Giga Drain and Hidden Power [Fire]. Garchomp and Tyranitar can take an attack but are cripple by Sleep Powder. For this threat, I recommend replacing Gastrodon with a Calm Mind Latias with a moveset of Calm Mind / Recover / Dragon Pulse / Psyshock. Calm Mind Latias is a great check to Sun teams with her massive Special Defense stat and resistance to Fire and Grass type attacks. She can take an attack from Venusaur and dispatch of it with a STAB Psyshock. Latias helps fill in the role of a Rain check that Gastrodon is currently filling as Latias herself is a great check to Rain teams with the ability to check the likes of Tentacruel and Keldeo easily. With Recover, Latias can heal off damage from the opponent and residual damage from status and accumulate more Calm Mind boosts. Dragon Pulse is an obligatory STAB that is quite powerful after a few boosts. Latias makes a great partner with Garchomp as the dual Dragon core can wear down each other's counters, opening a late game sweep for one or the other.

Now for some smaller changes. On Skarmory, I recommend a Specially Defensive spread of 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SDef with a Careful nature. Skarmory already has a massive Defense stat even without much investment and can continue to wall most physical attackers. By investing in Special Defense, Skarmory can more easily take the likes of Tornadus-T's Hurricanes and Latios' Draco Meteors so he can serve as a great mixed wall for your team. Lastly, on Garchomp I recommend using Dragon Claw instead of Outrage. Dragon Claw allows you to switch up moves and you won't have to worry about the confusion from Outrage that could possibly prevent Garchomp from sweeping.

Hope I helped and good luck with your team!

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